CSEM

Organization and business

CSEM, Centre Suisse d’ Electronique et de Microtechnique (Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology), founded in 1984, is a private research and development center specializing in microtechnology, nanotechnology, microelectronics, system engineering and communications technologies. It offers to its customers and industry partners custom-made innovative solutions based on its knowledge of the market and technological expertise derived from applied research.

Having founded several start-ups, it contributes to developing Switzerland as an industrial location.

To date, a total of 29 such enterprises, with more than 500 employees, have been launched by CSEM. Approximately 400 highly qualified and specialized employees from various scientific and technical disciplines work for CSEM in Neuchâtel, Zurich, Basel, Alpnach and Landquart. They represent more than 30 nationalities and constitute the basis of CSEM’s creativity, dynamism and potential for innovation.

Key skills, knowledge, and experience

The Control & Signal Processing Section of CSEM’s Systems Division has extensive experience in concept development, signal acquisition and in processing and software implementation for complex control, monitoring and diagnostic systems. Successful applications have been shown recently in different fields, thus also including the energy domain.

Since 1998 the group has been working on the development of innovative and integrated control systems for optimum energy management, preserving the indoor comfort in buildings. As such, a system, which was based on predictive and adaptive control algorithms, was developed that allowed the optimization of the electrical load management with respect to the local production of photovoltaic electricity.

Furthermore, the group also developed and industrialized an innovative heating controller, which was transferred to the start-up company Neurobat SA.

Role in the project

In the SEMIAH project CSEM will contribute to technical design and specifications of the system.

In addition, CSEM will contribute to the data aggregation and the optimization of the demand-response management, where the above-mentioned experience and know-how with regard to predictive and adaptive control, optimization and scheduling will be brought in.

Finally, CSEM will also contribute to the development of the large-scale simulator and the system integration.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 619560.